(1) Field of the Invention
This invention relates to glides, and more particularly to retail display glides for holding a number of beverage containers.
(2) Description of the Related Art
There are a wide variety of devices for storing, displaying, and dispensing products such as individual beverage containers. A broad genus of such devices are known as glides. Such glides confine the good to discrete lanes (often designated rows or columns), typically arrayed extending front-to-back in a refrigerator, display case, or shelf unit. Many such glides are configured or mounted so that the glide base surface supporting the goods inclines from front to back to allow a back-to-front gravity feed.
U.S. Pat. No. Des. 275058 discloses one basic glide. The glide has a given footprint on the associated shelf or other support surface.
Glides have been provided which are reversibly or permanently alterable to accommodate and available shelf footprint. U.S. Pat. No. 4,478,337 identifies a glide having front and rear portions which slidingly interfit to permit adjustment of the front-to-back length of the glide. U.S. Pat. No. 4,958,739 discloses a glide in which a rear portion is disjointably coupled to a front portion to permit size adjustment by the addition or removal thereof. U.S. Pat. No. 4,801,025 discloses a stackable glide system wherein outboard lanes may be severed from the glide to narrow it.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,904,256 discloses a system wherein individual lane-defining members may be secured side-by-side to form a composite glide. In addition to producing individual members of a single lane in width, the assignee of that patent is believed to make one-piece members which define multiple (e.g., three) lanes.
There, however, remains a need in the art for an improved glide with the ability to effectively accommodate a variety of product sizes.